Paraphrase

William Carlos Williams begins his poem Asphodel, That Greeny Flower by describing the blandness of the flower. The speaker has brought asphodel flowers to his lover, who I assume is dead, and recalls all the flowers which they loved together. The speaker says that the flowers are important to him, even the ones that are not as colorful. The speaker says that those who are dead appreciate the flower more because the shape of the flower, not the color, reminds them of life and love. The speaker then stops his talk about the flower and says that he has something urgent to say, but that it will take some time while he takes in all the memories he had with her. The memories start to come, the first of which is a book of pressed flowers which he kept when he was a boy. He has brought her the asphodel flower, which retains its odor, although it has lost its color, but since the dead don't typically reflect on color and more on shape, it's okay.

The speaker then begins to reflect on their life together and the wonders of the gardens of the the earth. The sea, he says, is the most marvelous and puts all other gardens to shame. From the sea stars to the sea wrack, the sun shines upon all of it. Both were born by the sea and gathered strawberries and wild plum in the fields by it.

He then switches his focus to hell. He says he has never been there in for her but have been there in pursuit of her. Death is not the end of love, he tells her. Looking at the fairy flower the storms arose and they danced in its blossom and began to read books, the first of which was a "serious book", the Iliad. He thinks of that book when he thinks of the sea. Helen's blossoming caused the Trojan war and therefore the poem was written. It was her blossoming that caused so many men to die, but they must cure their minds and maintain hope.